Romper Room

Mr Do-Bee

Remember Romper Room?

Each program would open with a greeting from the hostess and the Pledge of Allegiance. Then the hostess and her group of children would embark on an hour (or half hour) of games, exercises, songs and moral lessons, which were regularly accompanied by background music. The young cast was rotated every two months and ranged from four to five years old.

“Romper Room” tried to teach its young charges to be polite. For instance, the hostesses were always addressed as “Miss.” Many of the hostesses had prior experience in dealing with small children, as many were former kindergarten teachers.

A recurring character was Mr. Do-Bee, an oversized bumblebee who came to teach the children how to be well-behaved; he was noted for always starting his sentence with “Do Bee,” as in the imperative “Do be”; for example, “Do Bee good boys and girls for your parents!” There was also a “Mr. Don’t Bee” to show children exactly what they should “not” do.

Romper Room Fun & Games

The show used the then-popular Mattel Jack-in-the-box for its opening and closing titles, with its “Pop Goes the Weasel” theme song.

Fun & games was what “Romper Room” was all about. Making music (banging tamborines), riding hobby horses, the Mr Dooby” song Romper Stomper & lots more. A recurring character was Mr. Do-Bee, an oversized bumblebee who came to teach the children how to be well-behaved; he was noted for always starting his sentence with “Do Bee,” as in the imperative “Do be”; for example, “Do Bee good boys and girls for your parents!” There was also a “Mr. Don’t Bee” to show children exactly what they should “not” do.Remember the Mr Dooby song, do be good, polite, curteous etc, don’t be bad, sad, angry etc.. It went something like…Mr Dooby how do you do
we’d like to play a game with you, we’ll watch you buzz, we’ll watch you fly & catch you as you’re sailing by, 1…2…3…bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

With the chant spoken, the Romper Room hostess gazed through the empty mirror frame and recited the names of the lucky children whom she pretended to see watching the program (a different list of names each day). For example, “I see Tommy and Susan and Hannah and William and Mary and all you boys and girls out there.” Of course, the hostess really couldn’t see the children, but to the kids at home, as they listened for their name to be mentioned, they knew that they were someone special, at least in the World of Romper Room.

I waited in vain for my name to be read out, week after week, year after year. She never did read my name out which aroused my suspicions about this so called “magic”mirror. If it was so magical.. why couldn’t it ever see me?